A/N: I feel I should explain something. There has been some expression(s) of disappointment that Tony was not the one there with Ziva; there is a very specific reason I chose to keep him out of harm's way which may become clearer as the story progresses. All things considered, you may be glad I did.
Aside from that, as a rule I prefer pairings to be open to interpretation, so draw what conclusions you will. :)
- Chapter Two -
You hear the helicopters first.
Two of them, dangerous and insect like. Then, on the ground. Trucks. They traced your vehicle.
Traced the video.
Zurich and Hassam are on the controls, waiting for the call. Waiting for someone to get too close.
Someone does. You see a flash of sandy hair, rounded cheeks, before he disappears in a puff of smoke that throws him apart.
They stop, regard. Retreat. The drone of the helicopters grates as they circle.
Outside it's more a machine than anything. It doesn't have a face yet.
When the face does appear, it's bald with a donut of hair and a grouchy pug face.
Zurich doesn't keep the link open for any longer than it takes to send the demands. He knows the game, knows the little wheedling tricks of negotiators.
He's having none of that.
It's night, by the time the reply comes. There are noises coming from the cupboard.
The message is abrupt.
We will pass the message on. Wait.
So you do.
You were never sure where Zurich got Hassam from. You know he's ex military, he's done a lot of things you can't even imagine.
Don't know a lot about Hassam. But he was there, when Zurich found you.
You worked in the fish markets. Big enough to cart the tuna, to disembowel them with those metal hooks.
You owe people money for bringing you here. Zurich said he'd pay them, and enough for your sister too.
Deliver her without strings, with a payment that is escapable.
First day.
Zurich is on the screen, making his demands. Talking to Israel.
You take the woman to use the 'latrine'. That is the word Hassam uses. The word you would choose would be 'bucket'.
Zurich and Hassam fought about who should guard her, but Zurich says he doesn't trust him to be alone with her. You think perhaps Zurich should have relented; the woman could have held her own, and Hassam takes it out on the American while Zurich isn't looking.
American boy. Something worrying about him. Got a funny look to his eye. They don't notice he's counting every shot. Doesn't look like the vengeful type.
She does. She scares the piss out of you.
She smiles at you with those very even teeth, even with a gun and a knife between you. You hate her for making you quiver because you both know it. She turns her back without a thought.
Both smart. They talk and talk in that little room. Zurich says they're making plans. He likes to listen in. When he rests, he has his ear pressed against the staircase. He listens to their conversations, and sometimes you catch him laughing.
"What?" You keep asking, but he waves you away. Eventually he tells you that they have given the three of you nicknames.
Hassam is the Screamer. They loathe him, and you think that is stupid of them. Zurich is far more dangerous. Zurich himself is Cabbie.
They call you Leni.
Hassam finds this funny. "Leni. Leni, such a female name!"
Zurich smiles. "Lenny. Powerful, dumb giant. Very you."
You don't get it.
Zurich hears something. When they take the American to use the bucket, they tie his ankles and wrists. Tell him he'll get a gag too, if he tries IT.
IT. Must have been a hell of a plan, for that emphasis. Shame they don't know how easy it is to listen in. They only see a tiny part of the basement you're in; for all they know it's a building. Not this tiny room with partitions.
You get the honour of tying the woman. Even with the gun your hands shake.
She doesn't smile, but she turns her back all the same.
Night sets.
Day Two.
You expected demands every half hour, to-ing and fro-ing between you, asking to see the prisoners. Everything Zurich said.
Anticlimax.
They made you wait forty-eight hours before they got back from Israel. You moved at just the wrong moment, right when four militia blew up a religious school on the border to Gaza.
And what you got?
We'll see what we can do. Wait.
Hassam doesn't seem bothered. Zurich went wide eyes and white, like when Hassam gives him those looks of contempt. He sat and planned what he would do to the hostages, prove he wasn't joking. Hassam told him to act a man, play the game.
You don't like this tension. They bicker, and you hear the two talking in the cupboard.
You barely sleep.
"They're up to something."
"Who?"
"Outside."
There always seems to be a helicopter overhead. Droning.
It gets very hot down here. You're becoming bored of the game. This is taking far too long.
Five days.
The two in the cupboard are getting antsy. Well, the man is. The woman's downright vicious. She's got a cold from the damp, and she's driving everyone including herself mad from coughing.
You always have the gun when you take her to use the bucket, because you can't trust her. Not for a second. You have to untie her hands. Last time you touched her she tried to head butt you.
You're thinking of that when you untie the last knot. It's how she catches you unawares.
She bites your fingers to the bone.
You yelp, drop her. She grabs for the gun, but you fall over and get in her way. She aims for the knife instead, but suddenly Hassam and Zurich appear and it's chaos.
They planned it. You'd gotten slack, forgotten to lock the door. The man has wriggled out of his bonds, and he's behind you, fingers on the gun.
You grab for him. He's faster, wriggles away.
Too slow for Zurich, though.
Zurich swings a chair and gets him across the face, flattening it.
A snarl. You turn just as Hassam throws his weight behind his fist. She practically flies into a wall.
Then she's down.
Zurich panics, runs for the cameras.
Hassam finds the gun at last, makes them lie on their stomachs with hands behind their head. He turns, waiting. Should this be blown, he's ready to take them out.
Movement.
You glance down, watch the woman's hand start to move towards the man. His eyes are half closed, blood masking his face. You nudge her gently with your foot, and the hand snaps back.
Zurich comes back.
Safe.
Beside your feet, the woman closes her eyes.
Hassam makes then kneel with their hands behind their head.
For twelve hours.
You take turns keeping watch, an hour long. You come after Zurich, and you suspect he makes them suffer. The four times you came, they seemed relieved. You pretend to be watching the computers, so its like you aren't noticing how they slump down, faces against the dirt and trembling with tiredness. By the end they can't move, twisted in pain because muscles have seized up into stone.
Hassam tells them to stand, and you watch as they realise they cannot. It's that sudden sharp look in their eye, that quickening of breath.
Bound without bonds.
At your last shift, Zurich tells you to stay in the other room. He is not finished with the punishment, but you must keep watch.
You hear noises.
There's a hot buzzing on your skin, and you're trembling. Zurich is laughing. You know that kind of laughing and you hate it hate it hate that nasty sound like bubbles—
Noises. You cover your ears, hum to yourself.
But despite yourself, you can't help but watch the curtain rippling.
Curious.
But not nearly enough.
Far more scared to know what they are doing behind that curtain.
Behind the curtain there is silence, and your stomach hurts.
You are sure someone is watching. There are shadows behind the trees.
When you sleep you feel their roots. Reaching through the cracks in the floor to slide like a tongue into your ear, to pop your eyes from the insides.
You can't bear the silence.
